23rd SAN FRANCISCO 
INTERNATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL 
MARCH 10-20, 2005 IN SAN FRANCISCO, BERKELEY, AND SAN JOSE

Cinematic impressions from Korea and Korean Americans

With more than 130 films and videos the 23rd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF) offers the largest and most prestigious showcase of movies by and about Asians and Asian American. This year's Festival presents 13 feature length and short works by Korean and Korean American filmmakers. The SFIAAFF unspools March 10-20 in San Francisco (AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres and Castro Theatre), Berkeley (Pacific Film Archive), and San Jose (Camera 3 Cinemas). For more information or tickets please telephone (415) 865-1588 or visit www.naatanet.org/festival on the worldwide web.

An outstanding film from South Korea hits American shores

Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Park Chan-wook's latest film, OLDBOY, is an incendiary revenge tale that makes KILL BILL seem pale by comparison. Abducted and imprisoned for 15 years for no apparent reason, Oh Dae-su (played by veteran actor Choi Min-sik in a tour-de-force performance) sets out to unleash his vengeance on an unseen captor.

Korean Americans offer a heartwarming feature and intimate documentaries

The Festival is proud to present Korean American filmmaker Michael Kang's THE MOTEL as its Closing Night selection. This heartwarming coming-of-age comedy unspools the tale of a hapless Chinese American teenager toiling in his family's sleazy suburban motel whose fortunes may change when he is taken under the wing of a rakish new tenant. THE MOTEL features stand out performances from 13-year old Jeffrey Chyau and Sung Kang (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW, SFIAAFF 2002).

For the 10,000 Korean women who married American G.I.'s and came to the United States, marriage was an escape from the crushing poverty of postwar Korea. Award-winning director Hosup Lee's AND THEREAFTER is a memorable portrait of one of these women, Young-Ja Wike, whose dreams of Mikook, or 'beautiful country," began crumbling soon after her arrival. Americans look down on her because of her poor English; Koreans call her a western whore: she continues to find herself a stranger in a country where she has lived in for the past forty years. AND THEREAFTER is preceded by Caryn Waechterâs GOD IS GOOD, the tale of a Korean American boy who faces the challenges of his immigrant parents when his mother takes action against her philandering husband.

The SFIAAFF is also pleased to present the world premiere of Grace Lee's eponymous film THE GRACE LEE PROJECT, a delightful examination of women who share a similar name and the associated identity and cultural politics which are connected with it. Through interviews with numerous Grace Lees (including many from the Bay Area), Lee paints an engaging portrait of Asian American women, who are not necessarily bound to the associations attributed to their names.

A special revival screening of a now classic documentary

To celebrate its landmark 25th anniversary, NAATA, the Festival's producer, has asked Guest Programmers to select films from its past which embody the spirit, history and diversity of its work. Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges are the writer/director creative team behind the celebrated films BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM and BRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Their choice for a revival screening is Deann Borshay Liem's FIRST PERSON PLURAL (2000). Borshay Liem's debut film is a personal documentary exploring the filmmaker's own struggle to confront the secrets of her childhood—she was a young Korean girl adopted by an American family—and reconcile the demands of two families, two cultures and two nations. As Chadha and Berges enthuse, "It is fearless and has to be admired for its emotional honesty and power."

A selection of short films from the Korean Diaspora

From Australia comes Sejong Park's Academy Award-nominated animated short BIRTHDAY BOY, about a young boy who fantasizes about being a soldier in the Korean War, like his father. BIRTHDAY BOY screens in the "FISHBOWLS AND SILENT YEARS" program of short films. In the "LOST AND FOUND" shorts program is Korean American maker Dong Hyeuk Hwang's MIRACLE MILE, about a Korean girl who lands in Los Angeles in search of her brother given up for adoption years ago. Yulsoo Park's HAIRWOLF, in the eclectic short program "HOUSE OF FLYING PANCAKES", is a funny tale of an Asian werewolf. For a quick musical fix catch Eugenia Chan's music video for local Korean American band Scrabbel, "1909" or S. Lorenzo Deguia's video work for Nemo's "Hidden Agenda," both in the "MUSIC VIDEO ASIA" program.

The SFIAAFF gratefully acknowledges its sponsors

The 23rd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, presented by NAATA and Asia Street on International Channel is supported in part by the Asian Art Museum, Canadian Consulate Trade Office, Comcast, Grants for the Arts, Koret Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Noon, Oscar Printing, Procter & Gamble, Radisson Miyako Hotel, San Francisco Tobacco Free Project, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, and Wells Fargo. NAATA is supported with major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, runs March 10-17, 2005 at the AMC Kabuki 8 Theatres, 1881 Post Street, and the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street in San Francisco; and the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way in Berkeley and March 18-20 at the Camera 12 Cinemas, 201 South Second Street in San Jose. For more information, please telephone (415) 865-1588 or visit www.naatanet.org/festival on the Internet.